Search: ' Dwight Yorke'

Does money talk loudest in the Championship? Csaba Abrahall
reviews the 2006-07 season in what should surely be called Division Two

Derby’s play-off victory averted the worst-case scenario, but the season was none the less a worrying one for the majority, as only West Brom’s failure to prevail at Wembley prevented all three of the sides relegated from the Premiership in 2006 securing an immediate return. With parachute payments set to rocket, Championship clubs without a recent top-flight history could be forgiven for questioning whether striving for success against such financially advantaged competitors is worth all the bother.

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Wearside has seen an unlikely football marriage, but Paul Doyle looks behind the headline spats to see how much Roy Keane and Niall Quinn have in common and assess their chances of survival

Niall Quinn often comes across as a Ronan Keating-type figure. There’s something earnest about the two Dubliners that denotes a craving to be perceived as nice guys. And there’s something essentially gormless in their demeanours that frequently suggests they’re both merely well meaning simpletons not to be taken seriously in the real, nasty world. So when Quinn first declared his intention to take over Sunderland, many in his homeland greeted the news with the same mixture of pity and amusement that they felt several years ago when Keating expressed an interest in becoming president of Ireland.

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Few countries were as desperate for a lift from the World Cup as Trinidad & Tobago, whose team provided some much needed national unity, as Mike Woitalla explains

XTrinidad & Tobago defender Marvin Andrews was 12 years old the last time his country came close to qualifying for a first World Cup. The Caribbean twin-island nation needed to draw against the United States in Port of Spain on November 19, 1989. Dwight Yorke, who had turned 18 two weeks earlier, started in midfield. Schools lifted their dress codes so the children could honour “Red Day”. The 30,000-strong crowd at Hasely Crawford Stadium looked like a scarlet blanket. Calypso bands played tunes about going to Italy. The Mighty Sparrow sang: “I never know Trini did love football so.” Lincoln Phillips, a former T&T national team goalkeeper, said: “It’s crazy. It’s the first time in the history of the country that everybody has gotten behind one thing.”

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Harry Kewell's hair might be pony, but after 32 years Australia are back at the World Cup and, as Mike Ticher reports, it's not just soccer diehards who are celebrating.

Some things are hard to forgive. For example: planning a ticker-tape parade to celebrate winning one World Cup qualifier, on penalties; inviting John Travolta on to the pitch and into the dressing rooms; 80,000 people booing the visitors’ anthem; banners and chants proclaiming “U R gay”; Harry Kewell’s double ponytail; playing Men at Work at full volume after the final whistle.

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With the launch of the new A-League and a looming World Cup play-off, the game could be on the verge of a major breakthrough – or perhaps not. Mike Ticher reports

September is the biggest month for football in Australia, though not usually the round-ball version. So it took a certain amount of chutzpah for the promoters of the new A-League to launch it just as the climax of the Australian rules and rugby league seasons were dominating the sports pages. On the other hand, it had been 17 months since the last gasp of the old National Soccer League, so perhaps there was little to be gained by waiting any longer. After the first few weeks of the eight-team league there is some cause for optimism, but still plenty of doubts.

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